Jack felt human for the first time in years, when he was finally mortal, temporary as it was. The sudden possibility of death reminded him of his previous verve for life.
Narrowly escaping death by arsenic poisoning was enough to make anyone grateful just to be alive.
In true mortal, human tradition, he bagged the first piece of tail he could get. It turned out to be not all that bad, really. Ben – or Bret – or whatever his name was, could have been worse. It was a good four hours of being mortal; the last good hours he would feel in a while.
...XoXoXo...
Rex Matheson joined Club Immortal; a very interesting turn of events. Jack tried to hit that, too, but it didn't work very well. It turned out that Rex was boringly straight. Men like that were few and far between when it came to Jack's charm, but Matheson would not be moved.
...XoXoXo...
Once Jack returned to good old Cardiff, Wales, he stayed his distance while Gwen reestablished a new Torchwood Three. He looked forward to seeing how a woman's touch would affect the décor.
...XoXoXo...
Well at least there wasn't any pink.
Jack was pleased with the way things turned out, despite the lack of a pet pterodactyl with an affinity for barbecue sauce.
He had his own office again, which was nice, and Gwen made sure to add some extra privacy, just in case Jack decided to have fun with someone at the office and did not want to be seen or overheard.
She had a good memory.
...XoXoXo...
Back when the hub exploded, the recovery and collection of remaining artifacts took place rather promptly. Many things were saved, but all of it was completely unorganized.
Now that Torchwood three was back in business, Jack showed up just in time to dig through vats and piles of things gathered from the rubble all those years ago. Weapons, clothing, art, a hair dryer, something that Jack could only guess was an alien dildo….
Lots of things to go through. Some was his, some was Tosh's. Some was Owens. Some was Gwen's, and some was Ianto's.
God, he really missed Ianto.
...XoXoXo...
As Jack was rummaging and wading through everything, he found a box. It was a wooden box, not very large. He remembered holding it before, and not really remembering when or why.
It intrigued him, this little box; just big enough to sit in the palms of his hands. It was a little bit ornate, but not too flashy. It felt like there was something in it.
Then he remembered. The sand. He'd discovered sand in that box so many years ago, and couldn't figure out why at the time. He still couldn't figure it out now.
Jack dashed to his office, lunging over boxes and objects on his way there. His new desk was the cleanest it would ever be; completely clear of clutter. Jack set the box on the desk and slowly slid the lid open, almost as if he was afraid something would pop out.
Nothing did. It was just a bunch of sand. Jack shrugged, attempting to shake the niggling in the back of his mind that told him there was something important about it; that there was a specific reason he couldn't remember anything about the box; why he had it, or why it was in his office all those years ago.
And what was with the sand?
Jack did some detective work. Tosh and Owen weren't the only smart people to ever work for Torchwood. Jack knew a thing or two. He looked at the sand under a microscope; a very science-ey thing to do. Just for a fleeting second he thought he saw the grains of sand move, but then he realized he was just breathing on the glass slide. He chided himself for not paying more attention when Owen prattled on about how to determine if something is from earth or not.
He really wished he had a machine, much like a microwave, that he could pop an object inside, press a button, and it would light up green for 'E.T.', and red for 'not E.T.' And furthermore, it needed a little screen with all the info you needed about whatever object you put in there. Then he could finally know if that weird thing he found in a box downstairs was truly an alien sex toy.
Jack was still staring at the sand in the microscope, remembering not to breathe too heavily and wordlessly daring the sand to move, when he heard Gwen enter the lab, which looked much more like an ordinary lab now, and less like an operating theatre.
"You want coffee?" Gwen asked casually, without thinking. But the look on Jack's face when he moved away from the microscope changed Gwen's tone.
"Oh… Sorry…" She said in a low voice.
"Yeah… It's okay." Jack tried not to sound as nostalgic as he felt.
"I miss him too. I mean, probably not as much as you, since I know you and him were-"
"It's okay." Jack interrupted, sparing Gwen the trouble of blithering on, and sparing himself the heartache of remembering Ianto.
"Coffee would be great."